May 2nd, 2013 Program
5:15 p.m. Kaye Scholer, 425 Park Avenue
Corporate presentations:
Perosphere Inc.: Solomon S. Steiner, Ph.D., President, CEO, Chairman, Founder
Cellanyx Diagnostics : Mani Foroohar, Chief Medical Officer
Guest Speaker: Oded Kraft, Vice President of Products, Medingo Roche Israel, IDS
In his talk, Mr. Kraft used the Medingo acquisition by Roche GmbH as an example for the challenges and opportunities bridging startup-corporate cultures.
About Oded Kraft
Oded Kraft is the VP Products at Medingo, an Israeli startup that developed the SOLO micropump for Insulin delivery, and was acquired by Roche GmbH in 2010 for $180M. In this position, Mr. Kraft is responsible for portfolio strategy and creation, cross functional program execution, and product management as well as various commercial activities and collaborations. Previously, Mr. Kraft worked for 7 years at GE Healthcare Nuclear Medicine division as a Global Segment Leader, leading R&D, clinical, research, marketing, and business activities. In a prior role at GE he was a System Architect for clinical applications and workstations. Mr. Kraft served as a Captain in the IDF for 7 years in an intelligence technology unit, holding technological and leadership positions, while stationed in the US and working with DoD firms. Mr. Kraft holds an MBA and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
About Medingo Ltd
Medingo Ltd. is fully owned by Roche Diagnostics and develops cutting-edge technologies for the welfare of people living with diabetes.
Medingo was established in 2005 by Ofer Yodfat, MD, at the heart of the Silicon Valley of Israel with a vision “To surround our customers with breakthrough, ever-improving diabetes therapies and ultimate support to cost-effectively improve their quality of life and care.”
With this vision, it set out to develop medical devices to improve the quality of life for people living with diabetes. The expert team of Medingo invested thousands of hours interviewing and working with customers and healthcare professionals during the design of the SOLO micropump to ensure SOLO met the needs and expectations of people with Diabetes, their physicians, and insurance companies. In 2009, the SOLO micropump gained FDA clearance and Medingo achieved its ISO 13485 quality certification. Medingo was originally owned by a large technology firm Elron, a firm that has backed many breakthrough technologies including the first CT Scan (later acquired by GE Healthcare), and the PillCam® for gastrointestinal studies (Given Imaging). In May 2010, Roche Diagnostics acquired Medingo to commercialize its products globally. With Roche’s extensive diabetes experience and global sales and marketing organizations, SOLO will receive the resources required to ramp up high-volume production and global sales.
Corporate presentations:
Perosphere Inc. Solomon S. Steiner, Ph.D., President, CEO, Chairman, Founder
Perosphere Inc. is a private Danbury, Conn.-based specialty pharmaceutical company with internationally recognized drug delivery expertise. Perosphere’s lead drug candidate is a reversal agent for new oral anticoagulants (“NOACs”), such as Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd.’s Lixiana® (edoxaban), Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH’s Pradaxa® (dabigatran), Johnson & Johnson’s and Bayer HealthCare AG’s Xarelto® (rivaroxaban), and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company’s and Pfizer Inc.’s Eliquis® (apixaban). There is currently no approved reversal agent for these NOACs. Perosphere employs rational drug design to invent proprietary new small molecules for targeted therapeutic indications. Perosphere selectively identifies and develops new chemical entities and other therapeutics that can be used as “rescue” drugs. Perosphere also identifies market opportunities where application of drug delivery technology to an already marketed drug can create a new patent-protected medical use or enhance safety, efficacy, or ease of use.
About Solomon S. Steiner, Ph.D.
Dr. Steiner founded and served as CEO to three publicly-traded drug-delivery companies: Biodel Inc. (Nasdaq: BIOD), MannKind Corp. (Nasdaq: MNKD), and Emisphere Technologies, Inc. (OTCQB: EMIS). Dr. Steiner served as Biodel’s Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer from its inception in December 2003 through March of 2010. In 1991, Dr. Steiner founded Pharmaceutical Discovery Corporation (“PDC”), a biopharmaceutical corporation and is an inventor of its Technosphere™ Technology and MedTone™ Inhaler. Dr. Steiner served as PDC’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the board of directors from its inception until December 2001, when PDC was merged with two other companies to form MannKind Corporation. From December 2001 to February 2003, Dr. Steiner served on MannKind’s board of directors and as a Corporate Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer. In 1985, Dr. Steiner founded and was Chairman of the board and President of Clinical Technologies Associates, Inc. (“CTAI”), now known as Emisphere Technologies, Inc. Under his leadership CTAI went public in February of 1989. Dr. Steiner is an inventor of Emisphere’s oral delivery technology for peptides and mucopolysaccharides.
Dr. Steiner is a Full Professor Emeritus at City University of New York, New York Medical College, a Research Full Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at New York University School of Medicine and Adjunct Full Professor of Medical Science at Brown University.
Dr. Steiner serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Journal of Hypertension. Dr. Steiner was elected a Fellow of the American Psychological Association in 1973 for his work in psychopharmacology and has authored or co‑authored over 200 scientific publications. Dr. Steiner has served as a consultant to numerous pharmaceutical companies in connection with drug discovery and clinical efficacy testing. From 1966 till 1970 he was a Senior Research Scientist at Schering-Plough Corp. where he and his colleagues discovered and developed the first dopamine-2 receptor blockers. From 1964 to 1966 Dr. Steiner served as a Captain, Division of Neuropsychiatry, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, U.S. Army. Dr. Steiner recieved a B.A. from New York University with a major in psychology and chemistry and a Ph.D. from New York University.
Cellanyx Diagnostics, Mani Foroohar, Chief Medical Officer
Current prostate cancer diagnostics lack the ability to predict tumor aggressiveness and up to 80% of patients with low to moderate risk tumors still receive aggressive treatment, including surgery or radiation which is associated with severe long‐term side effects. Cellanyx’s in vitro diagnostic service will address this unmet need by providing urologists and patients with a predictive and quantitative measure of a tumor’s aggressiveness and metastatic
potential in addition to aiding the decision to perform or avoid surgery. Specifically, Cellanyx will add additional information to the Gleason score, providing more clarity between Gleason scores 2‐4 and Gleason scores 6‐8, thus optimizing treatment selection. Importantly, Cellanyx’s diagnostic will allow patients to be monitored with more specificity during watchful waiting or active surveillance. Cellanyx’s diagnostic platform has the ability to eliminate unnecessary treatment for 140,000 men, potentially saving payers $4.9 billion per year. Cellanyx is uniquely positioned to accrue valuable clinical data towards the commercialization of this prognostic technology. This data will lead to licensing and strategic partnerships, yielding revenue and exit opportunities as early as 2015. Harnessing the predictive power of novel biomarkers enabled by microfluidic technology, Cellanyx will offer a diagnostic CLIA lab service for prostate cancer.
